Monday, December 20, 2010

Rant: Who's copying who?

Nov 30 (Reuters) - Hasbro Inc (HAS.N) won a victory over rival Buzz Bee Toys when a federal court banned the privately held rival from making or selling anything that uses Hasbro's patent for certain toy water guns.

The decision came about five months after Hasbro filed suit against Buzz Bee accusing it of infringing its U.S. patent relating to its Nerf Super Soaker water products. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Massachusetts.

"We are very pleased with the result," Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness said on Tuesday. An attorney representing Buzz Bee did not return a call seeking comment.

An interesting piece of trivia is Buzz Bee Toys was originally founded by former key staff from Larami, the toy company who were the original developers of..yup, the original Super Soaker, before it was acquired by Hasbro..

Thing is, Hasbro might go after Buzz Bee because they are a genuine competitor but there are literally dozens of other water blaster manufacturers that boast similar air pressure blasters and seem to get through fine. Some of them are almost blatant rip offs.. for instance, you know those hot new Saturator motorised water blasters we've been talking about? Well they do more than just motorised blasters.. check out the STR-50 "Tornado"..

I'm thinking that looks PRETTY much like a Flashflood to me... but wait.. check out this offering: the STR40:

But hang on.. doesn't that look quite a bit like the Buzz Bee Water Warriors Gremlin:

Could you find out if the Saturator 50 is actually the FF? I looked at both pictures and every last detail is the same. Could there be a deal going on or does Hasbro own the "Tech Group" or what? I want someone to get it and find out! How much do they cost?

A toy blaster resource; from a kidult's perspective living in an Australian inner city apartment. Focusing on out- of- the- box foam dart, laser tag and water guns with the odd two player co-op game thrown in for good measure:)